Unzipped landlines ‘makes it easier’

The combination of a clever modem and a smartphone app could dial the death of dedicated home phones as we know them.

Broadband provider Woosh yesterday began offering an Unzipped service which links any iPhone or Android smartphone to local, mobile and international calling networks via a home’s landline.

Customers can now use their featureladen smartphone to make and accept free local calls, which had cost upwards of 49 cents a minute through a mobile network.

A traditional landline rental on its own costs $41.60 from Telecom, but under an Unzipped plan there is no landline rental even though the landline number is retained.

The smartphone is linked to the inhome Woosh modem through an application which is downloadable from the iPhone or Android app stores.

When the user is at home, both inbound and outbound calls are routed through the internet, via the modem, straight to the smartphone.

IDC telecommunications analyst Glen Saunders said the service simplified the free-calling services that many people were already accessing through internet programmes like Skype and Viber.